Decentralized key generation and management

ABSTRACT

System and techniques for decentralized key generation and management are described herein. An information centric network (ICN) node receives a first ICN interest packet for public encryption parameters of an identity based encryption (IBE) key generation center (KGC). Public encryption parameters for the KGC are received in a first ICN data packet in response to the first ICN interest packet. The public encryption parameters are cached and used to respond a second ICN interest packet for the public parameters. A third ICN data packet may be received from the KGC in response to a key generation request. Here, the third data packet includes an indication that the third ICN data packet is part of a one-time session. Then, the third ICN data packet is transmitted without caching the third ICN data packet content based on the indication.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments described herein generally relate to cryptographic keyexchanges and more specifically to decentralized key generation andmanagement.

BACKGROUND

Edge computing comprises data and computing infrastructure locatedcloser to requestors to achieve very low latencies and high bandwidthstypical of many demanding, emerging usages including those in 5G and 6Gcellular networks. Edge computing contrasts to delivering web-scaleservices globally through traditional cloud datacenters. Informationcentric networks (ICNs) implement protocols and mechanisms that enablerequestors to ask for information and computational services directly bytheir names. ICNs are contrasted with traditional address-based networksand protocols in which such requests are made by addressing specificend-points (e.g., host or service Internet Protocol (IP) addresses). ICNprotocols or mechanisms are often viewed as well matched to edgecomputing architectures because ICNs are naturally decentralized—due toa distributed peer-to-peer model of access—ICNs may resiliently accessinformation from anywhere it is cached, and ICNs auto-adapt to requestpatterns through intrinsic multicasting and forwarding strategies.Unlike address-based networks—which are engineered to consciously routetraffic to intermediaries such as forward or reverse proxy caches—ICNshandle the complexity of edge computing without onerous configuration.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numeralsmay describe similar components in different views. Like numerals havingdifferent letter suffixes may represent different instances of similarcomponents. The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, butnot by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the presentdocument.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of decentralized key generation, accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of decentralized key generation request toan NFN KGC, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of decentralized key generation responsefrom an NFN KGC, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of using a key generated by an NFN KGC,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of hosting a KGC in multiple instanceswithin an NFN, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates an overview of an edge cloud configuration for edgecomputing.

FIG. 7 illustrates operational layers among endpoints, an edge cloud,and cloud computing environments.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example approach for networking and services in anedge computing system.

FIG. 9 illustrates deployment of a virtual edge configuration in an edgecomputing system operated among multiple edge nodes and multipletenants.

FIG. 10 illustrates various compute arrangements deploying containers inan edge computing system.

FIG. 11A provides an overview of example components for compute deployedat a compute node in an edge computing system.

FIG. 11B provides a further overview of example components within acomputing device in an edge computing system.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example software distribution platform todistribute software.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example information centric network (ICN).

FIG. 14 illustrates a flow diagram of an example of a method fordecentralized key generation and management, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a machine uponwhich one or more embodiments may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Networked access, such as is typical in edge computing—may be prone toattacks by malicious entities. Generally, encryption is used to protectdata and preserve privacy of data accesses. Cryptographic techniquesattempt to ensure, for example, that a person or account such asPtolemy@Geocentric.com can access a machine or a resource such aswww.Copernicus.com, and that such an access is not interfered with byanother pretending to be the provider of the data being accessed (e.g.,a spoofing attack). Cryptographic security also attempts to prevent thedata being accessed or messages flowing back from the access target frombeing manipulated so as to corrupt them. Further, cryptographic securitytechniques help to ensure that discovering sensitive information thatonly the accessor is meant to receive from the accessed target isdiscovered. Typically, cryptographic security techniques employencryption and encryption-protected authentication through end to endhandshakes over secure sockets layer (SSL) SSL or transport layersecurity (TLS) sessions, or by using datagram TLS (DTLS), or othervariants. Generally, the encryption techniques rely on long, randomlygenerated keys that are associated with identities; such association isusually based on unforgeable, digitally signed documents which arecalled “Certificates”.

It is common for a public key of a particular entity, such as a website,to be a long string of bits. Here, a requestor cannot be sure that thekey indeed belongs to that particular entity without relying on abinding credential. That binding credential exists in the form of acertificate. A typical certificate attests to the authenticity of thewebsite along with that of the public key for that website. Accordingly,a requestor can trust a symmetric key negotiated during a TLS or SSLsession by using the public key to encrypt communications with thewebsite. A certificate also attests various parameters—such as thecertificate's validity period, the issuer, the signature algorithm,etc.—enabling each field in the certificate to be checked for itsintegrity. The infrastructure and processes for managing thesecertificates is inherently centralized through the existence of variousCertificate Authorities (CAs) that provide the certificates along withtheir signatures attesting to authenticity of locators—such as, IPaddresses or universal resource locators (URLs)—used to reach variousmachines, files, services, etc. Managing certificates and compliancerequirements among multiple parties in certificate management createsbarriers for scaling operations as well as the agility (e.g., ability toadapt to differing circumstances) of operations. These issues areexacerbated in decentralized and opportunistic communications that arecommon in edge computing. For example, consider that devices in a homeor a building first need to be authenticated with each new devicecontacted—a common occurrence—resulting in fetching a certificate beforecommunicating (e.g., encrypting and decrypting) with each new identity.Often this entails corresponding with different CAs or their delegateCAs, because not all devices are attested to by a common CA.

IBE (Identity based encryption) and IBPKE (identity based public keyencryption) may be used to avoid the need for certificates and CAs. IBEmay better support edge computing and 5G communications that have adramatic increase, over more traditional communications, in thefrequency of unplanned interactions arising ubiquitously amongperipatetic devices, people, sources and caches of information, andnetworked logic that can perform named operations. IBE operates on theidea that an entity's identity—such as its name, its biometriccharacteristics, etc.—are sufficient for any other entity to communicatewith it using asymmetric encryption. Here, the public parameters for theencryption are freely and widely available without any centralizingauthority, such as a CA needed for binding them to the entity'sidentity. The result is an effective decentralizing of cryptography. Inplace of CAs, IBE uses Key Generation Centers (KGCs) that provide atrusted service of publishing an association between an identity and aprivate key for that identity. The KGC creates the private key for theholder of the identity that the holder of the identity then uses to signdocuments or decrypt communications addressed to that identity.

Discovering and using KGCs may still be a challenge in edge computingenvironments. However, as the public parameters of the KGC are generallystatic, Information Centric Networking (ICN) networks may provide aneffective platform to further decentralize cryptography. Here, the KGCmay be implemented as a named function in an ICN. When an entityrequests the public parameters for any other second entity by the secondentity's identity, the parameters are requested by name. The ICN networkroutes the interest packet to the KGC and the public parameters arereturned to the requester. As the data traverses the network, the datamay be cached at any intervening device, the data tied to the name usedto request the data, and the data tied unforgeably to the KGC's identityby the KGC's signature. Thus, any subsequent request for the parametersmay use the cached version, reducing workload on the network and theKGC. A special case may exist for the private key request by theidentity holder. This is an exchange in which data caching is generallynot useful, and may even be insecure. Here, an ICN flag or otherindication may be used to ensure that the ICN infrastructure does notcache data packets used in the private key exchange.

In the details and examples described below, NFN KGCs—KGCs implementedas functions in an ICN network may also be referred to as named functionnetworking (NFN) KGCs—result in a resilient distributed service that isinvokable by name and is capable of being placed on differentiatedhardware that can provide higher levels of acceleration and resistanceto attack than other techniques. NFN KGCs address a gap, or a missingopportunity between IBE and edge operations facilitated by the core ICNprinciple of accessing something by its name, without having to knowwhere it is located. This enables provisioning a KGC as a named functionnode or a named function service, so that there is no need for any partyin a given network to have to know and contact a particular host for thepurposes of minting an IBE secret key for itself or for any data orfunction it seeks to provide to others by name (e.g., by name of data orby name of the function that party wants to serve). Additional detailsand examples are provided below.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of decentralized key generation, accordingto an embodiment. IBE employs a Weil pairing to establish bilinear groupmaps

$\left( {{G\; 1 \times G\; 1}\overset{e}{\rightarrow}{G\; 2}} \right)$

satisfying three properties:

for all u, v in G1, e(u^(a), v^(b))=e(u,v)^(ab) in G2.

for a generator g of G1, e (g, g) is a generator of G2.

the map e is efficiently computable.

Identities are mapped into G1 by cryptographically strong hash functionsh1( ) over the identities, while a second hash function h2( ) generatesa mask in the form of a binary string (e.g., S) from a computed elementin G2 such that the sender of a message M 120 can apply S to transformthe plaintext into cyphertext. The computed element in G2 from which thebinary string mask S is produced is a function of the identity ID and arandom number r that is selected by the sender of a message 120 to areceiver 105 with the identity ID.

The KGC 110 provides a private key dID (illustrated as D_I) to areceiver 105 that requests a secret key for a given ID. The receiver 105may furnish a proof of ownership or proof of authenticity of the ID tothe KGC 110 that may be local to the domain in which the receiver 105and a KGC 110 belong. For example, a KGC 110 in the private domainemployees.justSomeCompany.com may have a number of alternativetechniques by which to establish that an employee—such asaPerson@justSomeCompany—is who the person claims to be by issuing achallenge-response through email, smartphone, etc. The KGC 110 alsopublishes public parameters g, h1, h2, and qID (illustrated as Q-I).Here, the correspondence (dID→qID) over identities is easily computedand published by the KGC 110. However, the correspondence generallycannot be broken down by other parties into its constituent parts.

The sender 120 of a message M to an identity ID draws a random number rand then computes a cyphertext tuple [C1(r), C2(M, ID)], where C1=g^(r)and C2 (M, ID)=M ⊗h2(e(h1(ID), q_(ID))^(r)). The receiver 105 recoversthe message M by performing the operation C2 ⊗h2(e(d_(ID),C1)). Thiseffectively reverses the obfuscation that the sender 120 performedthrough r due to the first property of the bilinear mapping. Briefly, C2⊗h2(e(d_(OID), C1))=M ⊗h2(e(h1(ID), q_(ID))^(r)) ⊗h2(e(d_(ID), C1))where q_(ID) equals g^(α), d_(ID)=h1(ID){circumflex over ( )}α byconstruction of the private key and therefore the last two terms becomeidentical due to bilinearity of the mapping e, and their exclusive-orproduces identity, effectively yielding back M.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of decentralized key generation request toan NFN KGC 220, according to an embodiment. Here, the KGC 220 is afunction implemented on one or more nodes of the ICN network 230. TheKGC 220 may be implemented in a host, a virtual machine (VM), container,or other environment of the ICN network 230 that implements a KGCcapability. In an example, the KGC 220 may be implements in a containeror a VM that may have migrated from an initial host in the ICN network230 to a second host in the ICN network 230 that is, for example, closerto edge requesters.

The KGC 220 is denoted with the name “F” in FIG. 2. A principal, such asthe principal 205, for a particular identity i may request the KGC 220to produce a secret key Di by simply naming “F” in an interest packetfor the request. The KGC 220 has a well-known set of public parametersassociated with itself. Thus, to make the private key generationrequest, the requestor 205 computes a cypher text 210 (operation 1A)using those public parameters, the cyphertext having the message M thatcontains the identity i and random number r both as message payload andas a cypher-text producer for the message. The message is then sentthrough the ICN network (operation 1B) to eventually arrive at the KGC220. The KGC 220 then decodes the message (operation 1C)—using theprivate aspects of the public parameters—and recovers the identity itogether with the random number r that was sent along with the identity.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of decentralized key generation responsefrom an NFN KGC 320, according to an embodiment. The scenarioillustrated in FIG. 3 follows the secure delivery of the Di requested inFIG. 2. The KGC 320 computes the secret key Di (operation 2A). The KGC320 also uses the random number r that the principal 305 had insertedinto the payload as a shared-secret (e.g., symmetric) key. Othertechniques may be used to secure the delivery of the secret key Di tothe principal 305, such as using r to derive a secret key that isproduced by hashing the key r using a cryptographic function that ispublished as a public parameter of the KGC 320. Whenever a secretcomponent of the original request, such as r is used to secure thereturn communication, the communication is secure. When using a randomnumber, like r, that will not be used again, the communication is verydifficult to attack.

Further both the messages 1A and 2A are generally small in size—perhapscontaining only the identity i, the random number r, the secret key, andpossibly a nonce to prevent replay of previously transmitted payloads.Thus, session establishment is generally not necessary, enabling thepublic parameters to provide security to the KGC 320 and the randomnumber r to provide security back to the principal 305.

The secret key Di is protected by the one-time secret key from r and isthen sent back to the requestor by the KGC 320 (operation 2B). As notedabove, using r to protect the return message 315 causes the message 315to be undecipherable by anyone other than the requestor, the principal305. Note that the return message 315 is a one-time message that cannotbe used—and would be undesirable if it were used—by any entity otherthan the principal 305. Thus, the standard caching behavior of ICN iseither wasteful or insecure with respect to the message 315. Metadatawith the response message 315 may indicate to the intermediaries (e.g.,ICN routers or other forwarding devices of the ICN network 330) thatthere is no need to place the response into their respective contentstores (e.g., local cache).

When the response 315 reaches the principal 305, the principal 305recovers the secret key Di by unwrapping 310 it with secret key that therequestor implicitly established with the KGC 320 via the originalrandom number r (operation 2C).

The KGC 320 may publish all of its public parameters for everyone tocache and access using mechanisms of the ICN network 330. In this way,both the invocation of KGC 320 for obtaining secret keys, and forsenders (e.g,, those devices attempting to send encrypted communicationsto the principal 305) who are using the public parameters to perform IBEdo not require knowledge of a specific host nor a need to know how toobtain that KGC's public parameters. Rather, the principal 305 simplyproduces an interest naming the KGC 320 and senders simply create aninterest for the public parameters of the KGC 320. Like anything else inan the ICN network 330, simply using the name of the KGC 320 and the KGCpublic parameters will correctly route the messages. Moreover, becausethe KGC public parameters are likely cached after a first request, theround-trip response time to a sender is likely small as an ICN routingnode will likely cache the public parameters after just one initialrequest for them.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of using a key generated by an NFN KGC,according to an embodiment. The illustrated technique includes anindication (e.g., a tag, attribute, etc.) that a receiver specificcommunication from a sender 405 to a principal 410 should not be cachedby ICN nodes through which the message may transit. Generally, IBEcommunications are not useful to others because they cannot be decryptedby others, and thus waste cache resources in the ICN nodes. However,such a tag may be omitted, enabling use cases in which the receiver 410is not a single node, but rather distributed among several physicalnodes as in the case of a widely accessed and cached content deliveryservice. In these scenarios, any of the distributed nodes may make useof the communication.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of hosting a KGC in multiple instanceswithin an NFN, according to an embodiment. The implementation of the KGCabove is generally described from the perspective of a single functionhosted by a single physical node. However, any number of physical nodesmay host any number of KGC functions as long as the secret and publicparameters are shared, resulting in cloned KGCs. This collection may bereferred to as KGC-as-a-Service (KGCaaS). Because any KGCaaS willresponding to either key generation requests or public parameter requestin the same manner, using a KGCaaS is identical to using a KGC forprincipals and requesters. In an example, the KGCaaS uses one of moreinstances of KGC in a service control framework to provide automaticscaling and resiliency of the key generation service to transientpartitions in the network.

In an example, the KGCaaS may be implemented with an instance of a KGCprincipal service that controls the autoscaling and resiliency of allthe instances of a KGCaaS. In an example, the KGC principal serviceincludes, within it or alongside it, a KGC service instance of lastresort. This instance of last resort operates a KGC if needed. The KGCprincipal service creates a template container (a container image, a VMimage, etc.) in which the KGC NFN is implemented.

The KGC principal service determines the number of KGC instances andwhich physical edge locations and nodes are suitable for running thoseinstances. The identified nodes and service instances, together with thebackup service instance (e.g., the KGC service instance of last resort),are launched and then monitored by the KGC principal service for load,service level agreement (SLA) compliance, performance, etc. The KGCprincipal service may periodically use the metrics from the monitoringto adjust instances at times launching new instances and at other timessuspending or migrating current instances to fit current workloads.

In an example, the node hosting the KGC principal service or the nodeshosting the instances may include one or more of the hardware and systemproperties, such as being equipped with hardware acceleration for thevarious bilinear mapping computations (G1×G1→G2). The nodes may beequipped with confidential computing support, such as software guardextensions, trusted domain extensions, etc. The nodes may include highreliability attributes (e.g., reliability, availability serviceability(RAS) features), such as greater support for mirroring, deviceredundancies, specially designed for memory integrity, etc. The nodesmay be physically and logically better protected against intrusion bothdirect, and over a network. The nodes may run very thin operatingsystems partitioned into thin microkernels so that the attack surfaceagainst system software is very small.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an overview of a configuration foredge computing, which includes a layer of processing referred to in manyof the following examples as an “edge cloud”. As shown, the edge cloud610 is co-located at an edge location, such as an access point or basestation 640, a local processing hub 650, or a central office 620, andthus may include multiple entities, devices, and equipment instances.The edge cloud 610 is located much closer to the endpoint (consumer andproducer) data sources 660 (e.g., autonomous vehicles 661, userequipment 662, business and industrial equipment 663, video capturedevices 664, drones 665, smart cities and building devices 666, sensorsand IoT devices 667, etc.) than the cloud data center 630. Compute,memory, and storage resources which are offered at the edges in the edgecloud 610 are critical to providing ultra-low latency response times forservices and functions used by the endpoint data sources 660 as well asreduce network backhaul traffic from the edge cloud 610 toward clouddata center 630 thus improving energy consumption and overall networkusages among other benefits.

Compute, memory, and storage are scarce resources, and generallydecrease depending on the edge location (e.g., fewer processingresources being available at consumer endpoint devices, than at a basestation, than at a central office). However, the closer that the edgelocation is to the endpoint (e.g., user equipment (UE)), the more thatspace and power is often constrained. Thus, edge computing attempts toreduce the amount of resources needed for network services, through thedistribution of more resources which are located closer bothgeographically and in network access time. In this manner, edgecomputing attempts to bring the compute resources to the workload datawhere appropriate, or, bring the workload data to the compute resources.

The following describes aspects of an edge cloud architecture thatcovers multiple potential deployments and addresses restrictions thatsome network operators or service providers may have in their owninfrastructures. These include, variation of configurations based on theedge location (because edges at a base station level, for instance, mayhave more constrained performance and capabilities in a multi-tenantscenario); configurations based on the type of compute, memory, storage,fabric, acceleration, or like resources available to edge locations,tiers of locations, or groups of locations; the service, security, andmanagement and orchestration capabilities; and related objectives toachieve usability and performance of end services. These deployments mayaccomplish processing in network layers that may be considered as “nearedge”, “close edge”, “local edge”, “middle edge”, or “far edge” layers,depending on latency, distance, and timing characteristics.

Edge computing is a developing paradigm where computing is performed ator closer to the “edge” of a network, typically through the use of acompute platform (e.g., x86 or ARM compute hardware architecture)implemented at base stations, gateways, network routers, or otherdevices which are much closer to endpoint devices producing andconsuming the data. For example, edge gateway servers may be equippedwith pools of memory and storage resources to perform computation inreal-time for low latency use-cases (e.g., autonomous driving or videosurveillance) for connected client devices. Or as an example, basestations may be augmented with compute and acceleration resources todirectly process service workloads for connected user equipment, withoutfurther communicating data via backhaul networks. Or as another example,central office network management hardware may be replaced withstandardized compute hardware that performs virtualized networkfunctions and offers compute resources for the execution of services andconsumer functions for connected devices. Within edge computingnetworks, there may be scenarios in services which the compute resourcewill be “moved” to the data, as well as scenarios in which the data willbe “moved” to the compute resource. Or as an example, base stationcompute, acceleration and network resources can provide services inorder to scale to workload demands on an as needed basis by activatingdormant capacity (subscription, capacity on demand) in order to managecorner cases, emergencies or to provide longevity for deployed resourcesover a significantly longer implemented lifecycle.

FIG. 7 illustrates operational layers among endpoints, an edge cloud,and cloud computing environments. Specifically, FIG. 7 depicts examplesof computational use cases 705, utilizing the edge cloud 610 amongmultiple illustrative layers of network computing. The layers begin atan endpoint (devices and things) layer 700, which accesses the edgecloud 610 to conduct data creation, analysis, and data consumptionactivities. The edge cloud 610 may span multiple network layers, such asan edge devices layer 710 having gateways, on-premise servers, ornetwork equipment (nodes 715) located in physically proximate edgesystems; a network access layer 720, encompassing base stations, radioprocessing units, network hubs, regional data centers (DC), or localnetwork equipment (equipment 725); and any equipment, devices, or nodeslocated therebetween layer 712, not illustrated in detail). The networkcommunications within the edge cloud 610 and among the various layersmay occur via any number of wired or wireless mediums, including viaconnectivity architectures and technologies not depicted

Examples of latency, resulting from network communication distance andprocessing time constraints, may range from less than a millisecond (ms)when among the endpoint layer 700, under 5 ms at the edge devices layer710, to even between 10 to 40 ms when communicating with nodes at thenetwork access layer 720. Beyond the edge cloud 610 are core network 730and cloud data center 740 layers, each with increasing latency (e.g.,between 50-60 ms at the core network layer 730, to 100 or more ms at thecloud data center layer). As a result, operations at a core network datacenter 735 or a cloud data center 745, with latencies of at least 50 to100 ms or more, will not be able to accomplish many time-criticalfunctions of the use cases 705. Each of these latency values areprovided for purposes of illustration and contrast; it will beunderstood that the use of other access network mediums and technologiesmay further reduce the latencies. In some examples, respective portionsof the network may be categorized as “close edge”, “local edge”, “nearedge”, “middle edge”, or “far edge” layers, relative to a network sourceand destination. For instance, from the perspective of the core networkdata center 735 or a cloud data center 745, a central office or contentdata network may be considered as being located within a “near edge”layer (“near” to the cloud, having high latency values whencommunicating with the devices and endpoints of the use cases 705),whereas an access point, base station, on-premise server, or networkgateway may be considered as located within a “far edge” layer (“far”from the cloud, having low latency values when communicating with thedevices and endpoints of the use cases 705). It will be understood thatother categorizations of a particular network layer as constituting a“close”, “local”, “near”, “middle”, or “far” edge may be based onlatency, distance, number of network hops, or other measurablecharacteristics, as measured from a source in any of the network layers700-740.

The various use cases 705 may access resources under usage pressure fromincoming streams, due to multiple services utilizing the edge cloud. Toachieve results with low latency, the services executed within the edgecloud 610 balance varying requirements in terms of: (a) Priority(throughput or latency) and Quality of Service (QoS) (e.g., traffic foran autonomous car may have higher priority than a temperature sensor interms of response time requirement; or, a performancesensitivity/bottleneck may exist at a compute/accelerator, memory,storage, or network resource, depending on the application); (b)Reliability and Resiliency (e.g., some input streams need to be actedupon and the traffic routed with mission-critical reliability, where assome other input streams may be tolerate an occasional failure,depending on the application); and (c) Physical constraints (e.g.,power, cooling and form-factor).

The end-to-end service view for these use cases involves the concept ofa service-flow and is associated with a transaction. The transactiondetails the overall service requirement for the entity consuming theservice, as well as the associated services for the resources,workloads, workflows, and business functional and business levelrequirements. The services executed with the “terms” described may bemanaged at each layer in a way to assure real time, and runtimecontractual compliance for the transaction during the lifecycle of theservice. When a component in the transaction is missing its agreed toSLA, the system as a whole (components in the transaction) may providethe ability to (1) understand the impact of the SLA violation, and (2)augment other components in the system to resume overall transactionSLA, and (3) implement steps to remediate.

Thus, with these variations and service features in mind, edge computingwithin the edge cloud 610 may provide the ability to serve and respondto multiple applications of the use cases 705 (e.g., object tracking,video surveillance, connected cars, etc.) in real-time or nearreal-time, and meet ultra-low latency requirements for these multipleapplications. These advantages enable a whole new class of applications(Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), Function as a Service (FaaS), Edge asa Service (EaaS), standard processes, etc.), which cannot leverageconventional cloud computing due to latency or other limitations.

However, with the advantages of edge computing comes the followingcaveats. The devices located at the edge are often resource constrainedand therefore there is pressure on usage of edge resources. Typically,this is addressed through the pooling of memory and storage resourcesfor use by multiple users (tenants) and devices. The edge may be powerand cooling constrained and therefore the power usage needs to beaccounted for by the applications that are consuming the most power.There may be inherent power-performance tradeoffs in these pooled memoryresources, as many of them are likely to use emerging memorytechnologies, where more power requires greater memory bandwidth.Likewise, improved security of hardware and root of trust trustedfunctions are also required because edge locations may be unmanned andmay even need permissioned access (e.g., when housed in a third-partylocation). Such issues are magnified in the edge cloud 610 in amulti-tenant, multi-owner, or multi-access setting, where services andapplications are requested by many users, especially as network usagedynamically fluctuates and the composition of the multiple stakeholders,use cases, and services changes.

At a more generic level, an edge computing system may be described toencompass any number of deployments at the previously discussed layersoperating in the edge cloud 610 (network layers 700-740), which providecoordination from client and distributed computing devices. One or moreedge gateway nodes, one or more edge aggregation nodes, and one or morecore data centers may be distributed across layers of the network toprovide an implementation of the edge computing system by or on behalfof a telecommunication service provider (“telco”, or “TSP”),internet-of-things service provider, cloud service provider (CSP),enterprise entity, or any other number of entities. Variousimplementations and configurations of the edge computing system may beprovided dynamically, such as when orchestrated to meet serviceobjectives.

Consistent with the examples provided herein, a client compute node maybe embodied as any type of endpoint component, device, appliance, orother thing capable of communicating as a producer or consumer of data.Further, the label “node” or “device” as used in the edge computingsystem does not necessarily mean that such node or device operates in aclient or agent/minion/follower role; rather, any of the nodes ordevices in the edge computing system refer to individual entities,nodes, or subsystems which include discrete or connected hardware orsoftware configurations to facilitate or use the edge cloud 610.

As such, the edge cloud 610 is formed from network components andfunctional features operated by and within edge gateway nodes, edgeaggregation nodes, or other edge compute nodes among network layers710-730. The edge cloud 610 thus may be embodied as any type of networkthat provides edge computing or storage resources which are proximatelylocated to radio access network (RAN) capable endpoint devices (e.g.,mobile computing devices, IoT devices, smart devices, etc.), which arediscussed herein. In other words, the edge cloud 610 may be envisionedas an “edge” which connects the endpoint devices and traditional networkaccess points that serve as an ingress point into service provider corenetworks, including mobile carrier networks (e.g., Global System forMobile Communications (GSM) networks, Long-Term Evolution (LTE)networks, 5G/6G networks, etc.), while also providing storage or computecapabilities. Other types and forms of network access (e.g., long-rangewireless, wired networks including optical networks) may also beutilized in place of or in combination with such 3GPP carrier networks.

The network components of the edge cloud 610 may be servers,multi-tenant servers, appliance computing devices, or any other type ofcomputing devices. For example, the edge cloud 610 may include anappliance computing device that is a self-contained electronic deviceincluding a housing, a chassis, a case, or a shell. In somecircumstances, the housing may be dimensioned for portability such thatit can be carried by a human or shipped. Example housings may includematerials that form one or more exterior surfaces that partially orfully protect contents of the appliance, in which protection may includeweather protection, hazardous environment protection (e.g., EMI,vibration, extreme temperatures), or enable submergibility. Examplehousings may include power circuitry to provide power for stationary orportable implementations, such as AC power inputs, DC power inputs,AC/DC or DC/AC converter(s), power regulators, transformers, chargingcircuitry, batteries, wired inputs or wireless power inputs. Examplehousings or surfaces thereof may include or connect to mounting hardwareto enable attachment to structures such as buildings, telecommunicationstructures (e.g., poles, antenna structures, etc.) or racks (e.g.,server racks, blade mounts, etc.). Example housings or surfaces thereofmay support one or more sensors (e.g., temperature sensors, vibrationsensors, light sensors, acoustic sensors, capacitive sensors, proximitysensors, etc.). One or more such sensors may be contained in, carriedby, or otherwise embedded in the surface or mounted to the surface ofthe appliance. Example housings or surfaces thereof may supportmechanical connectivity, such as propulsion hardware (e.g., wheels,propellers, etc.) or articulating hardware (e.g., robot arms, pivotableappendages, etc.). In some circumstances, the sensors may include anytype of input devices such as user interface hardware (e.g., buttons,switches, dials, sliders, etc.). In some circumstances, example housingsinclude output devices contained in, carried by, embedded therein orattached thereto. Output devices may include displays, touchscreens,lights, LEDs, speakers, I/O ports (e.g., USB), etc. In somecircumstances, edge devices are devices presented in the network for aspecific purpose (e.g., a traffic light), but may have processing orother capacities that may be utilized for other purposes. Such edgedevices may be independent from other networked devices and may beprovided with a housing having a form factor suitable for its primarypurpose; yet be available for other compute tasks that do not interferewith its primary task. Edge devices include Internet of Things devices.The appliance computing device may include hardware and softwarecomponents to manage local issues such as device temperature, vibration,resource utilization, updates, power issues, physical and networksecurity, etc. Example hardware for implementing an appliance computingdevice is described in conjunction with FIG. 11B. The edge cloud 610 mayalso include one or more servers or one or more multi-tenant servers.Such a server may include an operating system and implement a virtualcomputing environment. A virtual computing environment may include ahypervisor managing (e.g., spawning, deploying, destroying, etc.) one ormore virtual machines, one or more containers, etc. Such virtualcomputing environments provide an execution environment in which one ormore applications or other software, code or scripts may execute whilebeing isolated from one or more other applications, software, code, orscripts.

In FIG. 8, various client endpoints 810 (in the form of mobile devices,computers, autonomous vehicles, business computing equipment, industrialprocessing equipment) exchange requests and responses that are specificto the type of endpoint network aggregation. For instance, clientendpoints 810 may obtain network access via a wired broadband network,by exchanging requests and responses 822 through an on-premise networksystem 832. Some client endpoints 810, such as mobile computing devices,may obtain network access via a wireless broadband network, byexchanging requests and responses 824 through an access point (e.g.,cellular network tower) 834. Some client endpoints 810, such asautonomous vehicles may obtain network access for requests and responses826 via a wireless vehicular network through a street-located networksystem 836. However, regardless of the type of network access, the TSPmay deploy aggregation points 842, 844 within the edge cloud 610 toaggregate traffic and requests. Thus, within the edge cloud 610, the TSPmay deploy various compute and storage resources, such as at edgeaggregation nodes 840, to provide requested content. The edgeaggregation nodes 840 and other systems of the edge cloud 610 areconnected to a cloud or data center 860, which uses a backhaul network850 to fulfill higher-latency requests from a cloud/data center forwebsites, applications, database servers, etc. Additional orconsolidated instances of the edge aggregation nodes 840 and theaggregation points 842, 844, including those deployed on a single serverframework, may also be present within the edge cloud 610 or other areasof the TSP infrastructure.

FIG. 9 illustrates deployment and orchestration for virtualized andcontainer-based edge configurations across an edge computing systemoperated among multiple edge nodes and multiple tenants (e.g., users,providers) which use such edge nodes. Specifically, FIG. 9 depictscoordination of a first edge node 922 and a second edge node 924 in anedge computing system, to fulfill requests and responses for variousclient endpoints 910 (e.g., smart cities/building systems, mobiledevices, computing devices, business/logistics systems, industrialsystems, etc.), which access various virtual edge instances. Here, thevirtual edge instances 932, 934 provide edge compute capabilities andprocessing in an edge cloud, with access to a cloud/data center 940 forhigher-latency requests for websites, applications, database servers,etc. However, the edge cloud enables coordination of processing amongmultiple edge nodes for multiple tenants or entities.

In the example of FIG. 9, these virtual edge instances include: a firstvirtual edge 932, offered to a first tenant (Tenant 1), which offers afirst combination of edge storage, computing, and services; and a secondvirtual edge 934, offering a second combination of edge storage,computing, and services. The virtual edge instances 932, 934 aredistributed among the edge nodes 922, 924, and may include scenarios inwhich a request and response are fulfilled from the same or differentedge nodes. The configuration of the edge nodes 922, 924 to operate in adistributed yet coordinated fashion occurs based on edge provisioningfunctions 950. The functionality of the edge nodes 922, 924 to providecoordinated operation for applications and services, among multipletenants, occurs based on orchestration functions 960.

It should be understood that some of the devices in 910 are multi-tenantdevices where Tenant 1 may function within a tenant1 ‘slice’ while aTenant 2 may function within a tenant2 slice (and, in further examples,additional or sub-tenants may exist; and each tenant may even bespecifically entitled and transactionally tied to a specific set offeatures all the way day to specific hardware features). A trustedmulti-tenant device may further contain a tenant specific cryptographickey such that the combination of key and slice may be considered a “rootof trust” (RoT) or tenant specific RoT. A RoT may further be computeddynamically composed using a DICE (Device Identity Composition Engine)architecture such that a single DICE hardware building block may be usedto construct layered trusted computing base contexts for layering ofdevice capabilities (such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)).The RoT may further be used for a trusted computing context to enable a“fan-out” that is useful for supporting multi-tenancy. Within amulti-tenant environment, the respective edge nodes 922, 924 may operateas security feature enforcement points for local resources allocated tomultiple tenants per node. Additionally, tenant runtime and applicationexecution (e.g., in instances 932, 934) may serve as an enforcementpoint for a security feature that creates a virtual edge abstraction ofresources spanning potentially multiple physical hosting platforms.Finally, the orchestration functions 960 at an orchestration entity mayoperate as a security feature enforcement point for marshallingresources along tenant boundaries.

Edge computing nodes may partition resources (memory, central processingunit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), interrupt controller,input/output (I/O) controller, memory controller, bus controller, etc.)where respective partitionings may contain a RoT capability and wherefan-out and layering according to a DICE model may further be applied toEdge Nodes. Cloud computing nodes often use containers, FaaS engines,Servlets, servers, or other computation abstraction that may bepartitioned according to a DICE layering and fan-out structure tosupport a RoT context for each. Accordingly, the respective RoTsspanning devices 910, 922, and 940 may coordinate the establishment of adistributed trusted computing base (DTCB) such that a tenant-specificvirtual trusted secure channel linking all elements end to end can beestablished.

Further, it will be understood that a container may have data orworkload specific keys protecting its content from a previous edge node.As part of migration of a container, a pod controller at a source edgenode may obtain a migration key from a target edge node pod controllerwhere the migration key is used to wrap the container-specific keys.When the container/pod is migrated to the target edge node, theunwrapping key is exposed to the pod controller that then decrypts thewrapped keys. The keys may now be used to perform operations oncontainer specific data. The migration functions may be gated byproperly attested edge nodes and pod managers (as described above).

In further examples, an edge computing system is extended to provide fororchestration of multiple applications through the use of containers (acontained, deployable unit of software that provides code and neededdependencies) in a multi-owner, multi-tenant environment. A multi-tenantorchestrator may be used to perform key management, trust anchormanagement, and other security functions related to the provisioning andlifecycle of the trusted ‘slice’ concept in FIG. 9. For instance, anedge computing system may be configured to fulfill requests andresponses for various client endpoints from multiple virtual edgeinstances (and, from a cloud or remote data center). The use of thesevirtual edge instances may support multiple tenants and multipleapplications (e.g., augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR),enterprise applications, content delivery, gaming, compute offload)simultaneously. Further, there may be multiple types of applicationswithin the virtual edge instances (e.g., normal applications; latencysensitive applications; latency-critical applications; user planeapplications; networking applications; etc.). The virtual edge instancesmay also be spanned across systems of multiple owners at differentgeographic locations (or, respective computing systems and resourceswhich are co-owned or co-managed by multiple owners).

For instance, each edge node 922, 924 may implement the use ofcontainers, such as with the use of a container “pod” 926, 928 providinga group of one or more containers. In a setting that uses one or morecontainer pods, a pod controller or orchestrator is responsible forlocal control and orchestration of the containers in the pod. Variousedge node resources (e.g., storage, compute, services, depicted withhexagons) provided for the respective edge slices 932, 934 arepartitioned according to the needs of each container.

With the use of container pods, a pod controller oversees thepartitioning and allocation of containers and resources. The podcontroller receives instructions from an orchestrator (e.g.,orchestrator 960) that instructs the controller on how best to partitionphysical resources and for what duration, such as by receiving keyperformance indicator (KPI) targets based on SLA contracts. The podcontroller determines which container requires which resources and forhow long in order to complete the workload and satisfy the SLA. The podcontroller also manages container lifecycle operations such as: creatingthe container, provisioning it with resources and applications,coordinating intermediate results between multiple containers working ona distributed application together, dismantling containers when workloadcompletes, and the like. Additionally, a pod controller may serve asecurity role that prevents assignment of resources until the righttenant authenticates or prevents provisioning of data or a workload to acontainer until an attestation result is satisfied.

Also, with the use of container pods, tenant boundaries can still existbut in the context of each pod of containers. If each tenant specificpod has a tenant specific pod controller, there will be a shared podcontroller that consolidates resource allocation requests to avoidtypical resource starvation situations. Further controls may be providedto ensure attestation and trustworthiness of the pod and pod controller.For instance, the orchestrator 960 may provision an attestationverification policy to local pod controllers that perform attestationverification. If an attestation satisfies a policy for a first tenantpod controller but not a second tenant pod controller, then the secondpod could be migrated to a different edge node that does satisfy it.Alternatively, the first pod may be allowed to execute, and a differentshared pod controller is installed and invoked prior to the second podexecuting.

FIG. 10 illustrates additional compute arrangements deploying containersin an edge computing system. As a simplified example, systemarrangements 1010, 1020 depict settings in which a pod controller (e.g.,container managers 1011, 1021, and container orchestrator 1031) isadapted to launch containerized pods, functions, andfunctions-as-a-service instances through execution via compute nodes(1015 in arrangement 1010), or to separately execute containerizedvirtualized network functions through execution via compute nodes (1023in arrangement 1020). This arrangement is adapted for use of multipletenants in system arrangement 1030 (using compute nodes 1037), wherecontainerized pods (e.g., pods 1012), functions (e.g., functions 1013,VNFs 1022, 1036), and functions-as-a-service instances (e.g., FaaSinstance 1014) are launched within virtual machines (e.g., VMs 1034,1035 for tenants 1032, 1033) specific to respective tenants (aside theexecution of virtualized network functions). This arrangement is furtheradapted for use in system arrangement 1040, which provides containers1042, 1043, or execution of the various functions, applications, andfunctions on compute nodes 1044, as coordinated by an container-basedorchestration system 1041.

The system arrangements of depicted in FIG. 10 provides an architecturethat treats VMs, Containers, and Functions equally in terms ofapplication composition (and resulting applications are combinations ofthese three ingredients). Each ingredient may involve use of one or moreaccelerator (FPGA, ASIC) components as a local backend. In this manner,applications can be split across multiple edge owners, coordinated by anorchestrator.

In the context of FIG. 10, the pod controller/container manager,container orchestrator, and individual nodes may provide a securityenforcement point. However, tenant isolation may be orchestrated wherethe resources allocated to a tenant are distinct from resourcesallocated to a second tenant, but edge owners cooperate to ensureresource allocations are not shared across tenant boundaries. Or,resource allocations could be isolated across tenant boundaries, astenants could allow “use” via a subscription or transaction/contractbasis. In these contexts, virtualization, containerization, enclaves,and hardware partitioning schemes may be used by edge owners to enforcetenancy. Other isolation environments may include: bare metal(dedicated) equipment, virtual machines, containers, virtual machines oncontainers, or combinations thereof.

In further examples, aspects of software-defined or controlled siliconhardware, and other configurable hardware, may integrate with theapplications, functions, and services an edge computing system. Softwaredefined silicon (SDSi) may be used to ensure the ability for someresource or hardware ingredient to fulfill a contract or service levelagreement, based on the ingredient's ability to remediate a portion ofitself or the workload (e.g., by an upgrade, reconfiguration, orprovision of new features within the hardware configuration itself).

In further examples, any of the compute nodes or devices discussed withreference to the present edge computing systems and environment may befulfilled based on the components depicted in FIGS. 11A and 11B.Respective edge compute nodes may be embodied as a type of device,appliance, computer, or other “thing” capable of communicating withother edge, networking, or endpoint components. For example, an edgecompute device may be embodied as a personal computer, server,smartphone, a mobile compute device, a smart appliance, an in-vehiclecompute system (e.g., a navigation system), a self-contained devicehaving an outer case, shell, etc., or other device or system capable ofperforming the described functions.

In the simplified example depicted in FIG. 11A, an edge compute node1100 includes a compute engine (also referred to herein as “computecircuitry”) 1102, an input/output (I/O) subsystem 1108, data storage1110, a communication circuitry subsystem 1112, and, optionally, one ormore peripheral devices 1114. In other examples, respective computedevices may include other or additional components, such as thosetypically found in a computer (e.g., a display, peripheral devices,etc.). Additionally, in some examples, one or more of the illustrativecomponents may be incorporated in, or otherwise form a portion of,another component.

The compute node 1100 may be embodied as any type of engine, device, orcollection of devices capable of performing various compute functions.In some examples, the compute node 1100 may he embodied as a singledevice such as an integrated circuit, an embedded system, afield-programmable gate array (FPGA), a system-on-a-chip (SOC), or otherintegrated system or device. In the illustrative example, the computenode 1100 includes or is embodied as a processor 1104 and a memory 1106.The processor 1104 may be embodied as any type of processor capable ofperforming the functions described herein (e.g., executing anapplication). For example, the processor 1104 may be embodied as amulti-core processor(s), a microcontroller, a processing unit, aspecialized or special purpose processing unit, or other processor orprocessing/controlling circuit.

In some examples, the processor 1104 may he embodied as, include, or becoupled to an FPGA, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC),reconfigurable hardware or hardware circuitry, or other specializedhardware to facilitate performance of the functions described herein.Also in some examples, the processor 1104 may be embodied as aspecialized x-processing unit (xPU) also known as a data processing unit(DPU), infrastructure processing unit (IPU), or network processing unit(NPU). Such an xPU may be embodied as a standalone circuit or circuitpackage, integrated within an SOC, or integrated with networkingcircuitry (e.g., in a SmartNIC, or enhanced SmartNIC), accelerationcircuitry, storage devices, or AI hardware (e.g., GPUs or programmedFPGAs). Such an xPU may be designed to receive programming to processone or more data streams and perform specific tasks and actions for thedata streams (such as hosting microservices, performing servicemanagement or orchestration, organizing or managing server or datacenter hardware, managing service meshes, or collecting and distributingtelemetry), outside of the CPU or general purpose processing hardware.However, it will be understood that a xPU, a SOC, a CPU, and othervariations of the processor 1104 may work in coordination with eachother to execute many types of operations and instructions within and onbehalf of the compute node 1100.

The memory 1106 may be embodied as any type of volatile (e.g., dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM), etc.) or non-volatile memory or datastorage capable of performing the functions described herein. Volatilememory may be a storage medium that requires power to maintain the stateof data stored by the medium. Non-limiting examples of volatile memorymay include various types of random access memory (RAM), such as DRAM orstatic random access memory (SRAM). One particular type of DRAM that maybe used in a memory module is synchronous dynamic random access memory(SDRAM).

In an example, the memory device is a block addressable memory device,such as those based on NAND or NOR technologies. A memory device mayalso include a three dimensional crosspoint memory device (e.g., Intel®3D XPoint™ memory), or other byte addressable write-in-place nonvolatilememory devices. The memory device may refer to the die itself or to apackaged memory product. In some examples, 3D crosspoint memory (e.g.,Intel® 3D XPoint™ memory) may comprise a transistor-less stackable crosspoint architecture in which memory cells sit at the intersection of wordlines and bit lines and are individually addressable and in which bitstorage is based on a change in bulk resistance. In some examples, allor a portion of the memory 1106 may be integrated into the processor1104. The memory 1106 may store various software and data used duringoperation such as one or more applications, data operated on by theapplication(s), libraries, and drivers.

The compute circuitry 1102 is communicatively coupled to othercomponents of the compute node 1100 via the I/O subsystem 1108, whichmay be embodied as circuitry or components to facilitate input/outputoperations with the compute circuitry 1102 (e.g., with the processor1104 or the main memory 1106) and other components of the computecircuitry 1102. For example, the I/O subsystem 1108 may be embodied as,or otherwise include, memory controller hubs, input/output control hubs,integrated sensor hubs, firmware devices, communication links (e.g.,point-to-point links, bus links, wires, cables, light guides, printedcircuit board traces, etc.), or other components and subsystems tofacilitate the input/output operations. In some examples, the I/Osubsystem 1108 may form a portion of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) and beincorporated, along with one or more of the processor 1104, the memory1106, and other components of the compute circuitry 1102, into thecompute circuitry 1102.

The one or more illustrative data storage devices 1110 may be embodiedas any type of devices configured for short-term or long-term storage ofdata such as, for example, memory devices and circuits, memory cards,hard disk drives, solid-state drives, or other data storage devices.Individual data storage devices 1110 may include a system partition thatstores data and firmware code for the data storage device 1110.Individual data storage devices 1110 may also include one or moreoperating system partitions that store data files and executables foroperating systems depending on, for example, the type of compute node1100.

The communication circuitry 1112 may be embodied as any communicationcircuit, device, or collection thereof, capable of enablingcommunications over a network between the compute circuitry 1102 andanother compute device (e.g., an edge gateway of an implementing edgecomputing system). The communication circuitry 1112 may be configured touse any one or more communication technology (e.g., wired or wirelesscommunications) and associated protocols (e.g., a cellular networkingprotocol such a 3GPP 4G or 5G standard, a wireless local area networkprotocol such as IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi®, a wireless wide area networkprotocol, Ethernet, Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low Energy, a IoT protocolsuch as IEEE 802.15.4 or ZigBee®, low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) orlow-power wide-area (LPWA) protocols, etc.) to effect suchcommunication.

The illustrative communication circuitry 1112 includes a networkinterface controller (NIC) 1120, which may also be referred to as a hostfabric interface (HFI). The NIC 1120 may be embodied as one or moreadd-in-boards, daughter cards, network interface cards, controllerchips, chipsets, or other devices that may be used by the compute node1100 to connect with another compute device (e.g., an edge gatewaynode). In some examples, the NIC 1120 may be embodied as part of asystem-on-a-chip (SoC) that includes one or more processors, or includedon a multichip package that also contains one or more processors. Insome examples, the NIC 1120 may include a local processor (not shown) ora local memory (not shown) that are both local to the NIC 1120. In suchexamples, the local processor of the NIC 1120 may be capable ofperforming one or more of the functions of the compute circuitry 1102described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, in such examples, thelocal memory of the NIC 1120 may be integrated into one or morecomponents of the client compute node at the board level, socket level,chip level, or other levels.

Additionally, in some examples, a respective compute node 1100 mayinclude one or more peripheral devices 1114. Such peripheral devices1114 may include any type of peripheral device found in a compute deviceor server such as audio input devices, a display, other input/outputdevices, interface devices, or other peripheral devices, depending onthe particular type of the compute node 1100. In further examples, thecompute node 1100 may be embodied by a respective edge compute node(whether a client, gateway, or aggregation node) in an edge computingsystem or like forms of appliances, computers, subsystems, circuitry, orother components.

In a more detailed example, FIG. 11B illustrates a block diagram of anexample of components that may be present in an edge computing node 1150for implementing the techniques (e.g., operations, processes, methods,and methodologies) described herein. This edge computing node 1150provides a closer view of the respective components of node 1100 whenimplemented as or as part of a computing device (e.g., as a mobiledevice, a base station, server, gateway, etc.). The edge computing node1150 may include any combinations of the hardware or logical componentsreferenced herein, and it may include or couple with any device usablewith an edge communication network or a combination of such networks.The components may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portionsthereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, instructionsets, programmable logic or algorithms, hardware, hardware accelerators,software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the edgecomputing node 1150, or as components otherwise incorporated within achassis of a larger system.

The edge computing device 1150 may include processing circuitry in theform of a processor 1152, which may be a microprocessor, a multi-coreprocessor, a multithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, anembedded processor, an xPU/DPU/IPU/NPU, special purpose processing unit,specialized processing unit, or other known processing elements. Theprocessor 1152 may be a part of a system on a chip (SoC) in which theprocessor 1152 and other components are formed into a single integratedcircuit, or a single package, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boardsfrom Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. As an example, the processor1152 may include an Intel® Architecture Core™ based CPU processor, suchas a Quark™, an Atom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, an i9, or an MCU-classprocessor, or another such processor available from Intel®. However, anynumber other processors may be used, such as available from AdvancedMicro Devices, Inc. (AMD®) of Sunnyvale, Calif., a MIPS®-based designfrom MIPS Technologies, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., an ARM®-based designlicensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. or a customer thereof, or theirlicensees or adopters. The processors may include units such as anA5-A13 processor from Apple® Inc., a Snapdragon™ processor fromQualcomm® Technologies, Inc., or an OMAP™ processor from TexasInstruments, Inc. The processor 1152 and accompanying circuitry may beprovided in a single socket form factor, multiple socket form factor, ora variety of other formats, including in limited hardware configurationsor configurations that include fewer than all elements shown in FIG.11B.

The processor 1152 may communicate with a system memory 1154 over aninterconnect 1156 (e.g., a bus). Any number of memory devices may beused to provide for a given amount of system memory. As examples, thememory 1154 may be random access memory (RAM) in accordance with a JointElectron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) design such as the DDR ormobile DDR standards (e.g., LPDDR, LPDDR2, LPDDR3, or LPDDR4). Inparticular examples, a memory component may comply with a DRAM standardpromulgated by JEDEC, such as JESD79F for DDR SDRAM, JESD79-2F forDDR2SDRAM, JESD79-3F for DDR3 SDRAM, JESD79-4A for DDR4 SDRAM JESD209for Low Power DDR), (LPDDR), JESD209-2 for LPDDR2, JESD209-3 for LPDDR3,and JESD209-4 for LPDDR4. Such standards (and similar standards) may bereferred to as DDR-based standards and communication interfaces of thestorage devices that implement such standards may be referred to asDDR-based interfaces. In various implementations, the individual memorydevices may be of any number of different package types such as singledie package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package (Q17P).These devices, in some examples, may be directly soldered onto amotherboard to provide a lower profile solution, while in other examplesthe devices are configured as one or more memory modules that in turncouple to the motherboard by a given connector. Any number of othermemory implementations may be used, such as other types of memorymodules, e.g., dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) of different varietiesincluding but not limited to microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs.

To provide for persistent storage of information such as data,applications, operating systems and so forth, a storage 1158 may alsocouple to the processor 1152 via the interconnect 1156. In an example,the storage 1158 may be implemented via a solid-state disk drive(SSDI)). Other devices that may be used for the storage 1158 includeflash memory cards, such as Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards,eXtreme Digital (XD) picture cards, and the like, and Universal SerialBus (USB) flash drives. In an example, the memory device may be or mayinclude memory devices that use chalcogenide glass, multi-thresholdlevel NAND flash memory, NOR flash memory, single or multi-level PhaseChange Memory (PCM), a resistive memory, nanowire memory, ferroelectrictransistor random access memory (FeTRAM), anti-ferroelectric memory,magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) memory that incorporatesmemristor technology, resistive memory including the metal oxide base,the oxygen vacancy base and the conductive bridge Random Access Memory(CB-RAM), or spin transfer torque (STT)-MRAM, a spintronic magneticjunction memory based device, a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) baseddevice, a DW (Domain Wall) and SOT (Spin Orbit Transfer) based device, athyristor based memory device, or a combination of any of the above, orother memory.

In low power implementations, the storage 1158 may be on-die memory orregisters associated with the processor 1152. However, in some examples,the storage 1158 may be implemented using a micro hard disk drive (HDD).Further, any number of new technologies may be used for the storage 1158in addition to, or instead of, the technologies described, suchresistance change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories,or chemical memories, among others.

The components may communicate over the interconnect 1156. Theinterconnect 1156 may include any number of technologies, includingindustry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheralcomponent interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended(PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. Theinterconnect 1156 may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in an SoCbased system. Other bus systems may be included, such as anInter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) interface, a Serial Peripheral Interface(SPI) interface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, amongothers.

The interconnect 1156 may couple the processor 1152 to a transceiver1166, for communications with the connected edge devices 1162. Thetransceiver 1166 may use any number of frequencies and protocols, suchas 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) transmissions under the IEEE 802.15.4 standard,using the Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) standard, as defined by theBluetooth® Special Interest Group, or the ZigBee® standard, amongothers. Any number of radios, configured for a particular wirelesscommunication protocol, may be used for the connections to the connectededge devices 1162. For example, a wireless local area network (WLAN)unit may be used to implement Wi-Fi® communications in accordance withthe Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11standard. In addition, wireless wide area communications, e.g.,according to a cellular or other wireless wide area protocol, may occurvia a wireless wide area network (WWAN) unit.

The wireless network transceiver 1166 (or multiple transceivers) maycommunicate using multiple standards or radios for communications at adifferent range. For example, the edge computing node 1150 maycommunicate with close devices, e.g., within about 10 meters, using alocal transceiver based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or another lowpower radio, to save power. More distant connected edge devices 1162,e.g., within about 50 meters, may be reached over ZigBee® or otherintermediate power radios. Both communications techniques may take placeover a single radio at different power levels or may take place overseparate transceivers, for example, a local transceiver using BLE and aseparate mesh transceiver using ZigBee®.

A wireless network transceiver 1166 (e.g., a radio transceiver) may heincluded to communicate with devices or services in a cloud (e.g., anedge cloud 1195) via local or wide area network protocols. The wirelessnetwork transceiver 1166 may be a low-power wide-area (LPWA) transceiverthat follows the IEEE 802.15.4, or IEEE 802.15.4g standards, amongothers. The edge computing node 1150 may communicate over a wide areausing LoRaWAN™ (Long Range Wide Area Network) developed by Semtech andthe LoRa Alliance. The techniques described herein are not limited tothese technologies but may be used with any number of other cloudtransceivers that implement long range, low bandwidth communications,such as Sigfox, and other technologies. Further, other communicationstechniques, such as time-slotted channel hopping, described in the IEEE802.15.4e specification may be used.

Any number of other radio communications and protocols may be used inaddition to the systems mentioned for the wireless network transceiver1166, as described herein. For example, the transceiver 1166 may includea cellular transceiver that uses spread spectrum (SPA/SAS)communications for implementing high-speed communications. Further, anynumber of other protocols may be used, such as Wi-Fi® networks formedium speed communications and provision of network communications. Thetransceiver 1166 may include radios that are compatible with any numberof 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) specifications, such asLong Term Evolution (LTE) and 5th Generation (5G) communication systems,discussed in further detail at the end of the present disclosure. Anetwork interface controller (NIC) 1168 may be included to provide awired communication to nodes of the edge cloud 1195 or to other devices,such as the connected edge devices 1162 (e.g., operating in a mesh). Thewired communication may provide an Ethernet connection or may be basedon other types of networks, such as Controller Area Network (CAN), LocalInterconnect Network (LIN), DeviceNet, ControlNet, Data Highway+,PROFIBUS, or PROFINET, among many others. An additional NIC 1168 may beincluded to enable connecting to a second network, for example, a firstNIC 1168 providing communications to the cloud over Ethernet, and asecond NIC 1168 providing communications to other devices over anothertype of network.

Given the variety of types of applicable communications from the deviceto another component or network, applicable communications circuitryused by the device may include or be embodied by any one or more ofcomponents 1164, 1166, 1168, or 1170. Accordingly, in various examples,applicable means for communicating (e.g., receiving, transmitting, etc.)may be embodied by such communications circuitry.

The edge computing node 1150 may include or be coupled to accelerationcircuitry 1164, which may be embodied by one or more artificialintelligence (AI) accelerators, a neural compute stick, neuromorphichardware, an FPGA, an arrangement of GPUs, an arrangement ofxPUs/DPUs/IPU/NPUs, one or more SoCs, one or more CPUs, one or moredigital signal processors, dedicated ASICs, or other forms ofspecialized processors or circuitry designed to accomplish one or morespecialized tasks. These tasks may include AI processing (includingmachine learning, training, inferencing, and classification operations),visual data processing, network data processing, object detection, ruleanalysis, or the like. These tasks also may include the specific edgecomputing tasks for service management and service operations discussedelsewhere in this document.

The interconnect 1156 may couple the processor 1152 to a sensor hub orexternal interface 1170 that is used to connect additional devices orsubsystems. The devices may include sensors 1172, such asaccelerometers, level sensors, flow sensors, optical light sensors,camera sensors, temperature sensors, global navigation system (e.g.,GPS) sensors, pressure sensors, barometric pressure sensors, and thelike. The hub or interface 1170 further may be used to connect the edgecomputing node 1150 to actuators 1174, such as power switches, valveactuators, an audible sound generator, a visual warning device, and thelike.

In some optional examples, various input/output (I/O) devices may bepresent within or connected to, the edge computing node 1150. Forexample, a display or other output device 1184 may be included to showinformation, such as sensor readings or actuator position. An inputdevice 1186, such as a touch screen or keypad may be included to acceptinput. An output device 1184 may include any number of forms of audio orvisual display, including simple visual outputs such as binary statusindicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-charactervisual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display screens (e.g.,liquid crystal display (LCD) screens), with the output of characters,graphics, multimedia objects, and the like being generated or producedfrom the operation of the edge computing node 1150. A display or consolehardware, in the context of the present system, may be used to provideoutput and receive input of an edge computing system; to managecomponents or services of an edge computing system; identify a state ofan edge computing component or service; or to conduct any other numberof management or administration functions or service use cases.

A battery 1176 may power the edge computing node 1150, although, inexamples in which the edge computing node 1150 is mounted in a fixedlocation, it may have a power supply coupled to an electrical grid, orthe battery may be used as a backup or for temporary capabilities. Thebattery 1176 may be a lithium ion battery, or a metal-air battery, suchas a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery,and the like.

A battery monitor/charger 1178 may be included in the edge computingnode 1150 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 1176, ifincluded. The battery monitor/charger 1178 may be used to monitor otherparameters of the battery 1176 to provide failure predictions, such asthe state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery1176. The battery monitor/charger 1178 may include a battery monitoringintegrated circuit, such as an LTC4020 or an LTC2990 from LinearTechnologies, an ADT7488A from ON Semiconductor of Phoenix Ariz., or anIC from the UCD90xxx family from Texas Instruments of Dallas, Tex. Thebattery monitor/charger 1178 may communicate the information on thebattery 1176 to the processor 1152 over the interconnect 1156. Thebattery monitor/charger 1178 may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC)converter that enables the processor 1152 to directly monitor thevoltage of the battery 1176 or the current flow from the battery 1176.The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the edgecomputing node 1150 may perform, such as transmission frequency, meshnetwork operation, sensing frequency, and the like.

A power block 1180, or other power supply coupled to a grid, may becoupled with the battery monitor/charger 1178 to charge the battery1176. In some examples, the power block 1180 may be replaced with awireless power receiver to obtain the power wirelessly, for example,through a loop antenna in the edge computing node 1150. A wirelessbattery charging circuit, such as an LTC4020 chip from LinearTechnologies of Milpitas, Calif., among others, may be included in thebattery monitor/charger 1178. The specific charging circuits may beselected based on the size of the battery 1176, and thus, the currentrequired. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standardpromulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standardpromulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence chargingstandard, promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others.

The storage 1158 may include instructions 1182 in the form of software,firmware, or hardware commands to implement the techniques describedherein. Although such instructions 1182 are shown as code blocksincluded in the memory 1154 and the storage 1158, it may be understoodthat any of the code blocks may be replaced with hardwired circuits, forexample, built into an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

In an example, the instructions 1182 provided via the memory 1154, thestorage 1158, or the processor 1152 may be embodied as a non-transitory,machine-readable medium 1160 including code to direct the processor 1152to perform electronic operations in the edge computing node 1150. Theprocessor 1152 may access the non-transitory, machine-readable medium1160 over the interconnect 1156. For instance, the non-transitory,machine-readable medium 1160 may be embodied by devices described forthe storage 1158 or may include specific storage units such as opticaldisks, flash drives, or any number of other hardware devices. Thenon-transitory, machine-readable medium 1160 may include instructions todirect the processor 1152 to perform a specific sequence or flow ofactions, for example, as described with respect to the flowchart(s) andblock diagram(s) of operations and functionality depicted above. As usedherein, the terms “machine-readable medium” and “computer-readablemedium” are interchangeable. Also in a specific example, theinstructions 1182 on the processor 1152 (separately, or in combinationwith the instructions 1182 of the machine readable medium 1160) mayconfigure execution or operation of a trusted execution environment(TEE) 1190. In an example, the TEE 1190 operates as a protected areaaccessible to the processor 1152 for secure execution of instructionsand secure access to data. Various implementations of the TEE 1190, andan accompanying secure area in the processor 1152 or the memory 1154 maybe provided, for instance, through use of Intel® Software GuardExtensions (SGX) or ARM® TrustZone® hardware security extensions, Intel®Management Engine (ME), or Intel® Converged Security ManageabilityEngine (CSME). Other aspects of security hardening, hardwareroots-of-trust, and trusted or protected operations may be implementedin the device 1150 through the TEE 1190 and the processor 1152.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example software distribution platform 1205 todistribute software, such as the example computer readable instructions1282 of FIG. 12, to one or more devices, such as example processorplatforms) 1200 or connected edge devices. The example softwaredistribution platform 1205 may be implemented by any computer server,data facility, cloud service, etc., capable of storing and transmittingsoftware to other computing devices (e.g., third parties, or connectededge devices). Example connected edge devices may be customers, clients,managing devices (e.g., servers), third parties (e.g., customers of anentity owning or operating the software distribution platform 1205).Example connected edge devices may operate in commercial or homeautomation environments. In some examples, a third party is a developer,a seller, or a licensor of software such as the example computerreadable instructions 1282 of FIG. 12. The third parties may beconsumers, users, retailers, OEMs, etc. that purchase or license thesoftware for use or re-sale or sub-licensing. In some examples,distributed software causes display of one or more user interfaces (UIs)or graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to identify the one or more devices(e.g., connected edge devices) geographically or logically separatedfrom each other (e.g., physically separated IoT devices chartered withthe responsibility of water distribution control (e.g., pumps),electricity distribution control (e.g., relays), etc.).

In the illustrated example of FIG. 12, the software distributionplatform 1205 includes one or more servers and one or more storagedevices. The storage devices store the computer readable instructions1282, which may correspond to the example computer readable instructionsillustrated in the figures and described herein. The one or more serversof the example software distribution platform 1205 are in communicationwith a network 1210, which may correspond to any one or more of theInternet or any of the example networks described herein. In someexamples, the one or more servers are responsive to requests to transmitthe software to a requesting party as part of a commercial transaction.Payment for the delivery, sale or license of the software may be handledby the one or more servers of the software distribution platform or viaa third-party payment entity. The servers enable purchasers or licensorsto download the computer readable instructions 1282 from the softwaredistribution platform 1205. For example, the software, which maycorrespond to the example computer readable instructions describedherein, may be downloaded to the example processor platform(s) 1200(e.g., example connected edge devices), which are to execute thecomputer readable instructions 1282 to implement the technique. In someexamples, one or more servers of the software distribution platform 1205are communicatively connected to one or more security domains orsecurity devices through which requests and transmissions of the examplecomputer readable instructions 1282 must pass. In some examples, one ormore servers of the software distribution platform 1205 periodicallyoffer, transmit, or force updates to the software (e.g., the examplecomputer readable instructions 1282 of FIG. 12) to ensure improvements,patches, updates, etc. are distributed and applied to the software atthe end user devices.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 12, the computer readableinstructions 1282 are stored on storage devices of the softwaredistribution platform 1205 in a particular format. A format of computerreadable instructions includes, but is not limited to a particular codelanguage (e.g., Java, JavaScript, Python, C, C#, SQL, HTML, etc.), or aparticular code state (e.g., uncompiled code (e.g., ASCII), interpretedcode, linked code, executable code (e.g., a binary), etc.). In someexamples, the computer readable instructions 1282 stored in the softwaredistribution platform 1205 are in a first format when transmitted to theexample processor platform(s) 1200. In some examples, the first formatis an executable binary in which particular types of the processorplatform(s) 1200 can execute. However, in some examples, the firstformat is uncompiled code that requires one or more preparation tasks totransform the first format to a second format to enable execution on theexample processor platform(s) 1200. For instance, the receivingprocessor platform(s) 1200 may need to compile the computer readableinstructions 1282 in the first format to generate executable code in asecond format that is capable of being executed on the processorplatform(s) 1200. In still other examples, the first format isinterpreted code that, upon reaching the processor platform(s) 1200, isinterpreted by an interpreter to facilitate execution of instructions.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example information centric network (ICN),according to an embodiment. ICNs operate differently than traditionalhost-based (e.g., address-based) communication networks. ICN is anumbrella, term for a networking paradigm in which information and/orfunctions themselves are named and requested from the network instead ofhosts (e.g., machines that provide information). In a host-basednetworking paradigm, such as used in the Internet protocol (IP), adevice locates a host and requests content from the host. The networkunderstands how to route (e.g., direct) packets based on the addressspecified in the packet. In contrast, ICN does not include a request fora particular machine and does not use addresses. Instead, to getcontent, a device 1305 (e.g., subscriber) requests named content fromthe network itself. The content request may be called an interest andtransmitted via an interest packet 1330. As the interest packettraverses network devices (e.g., network elements, routers, switches,hubs, etc.)—such as network elements 1310, 1315, and 1320 a record ofthe interest is kept, for example, in a pending interest table (PIT) ateach network element. Thus, network element 1310 maintains an entry inits PIT 1335 for the interest packet 1330, network element 1315maintains the entry in its PIT, and network element 1320 maintains theentry in its PIT.

When a device, such as publisher 1340, that has content matching thename in the interest packet 1330 is encountered, that device 1340 maysend a data packet 1345 in response to the interest packet 1330.Typically, the data packet 1345 is tracked back through the network tothe source (e.g., device 1305) by following the traces of the interestpacket 1330 left in the network element PITs. Thus, the PIT 1335 at eachnetwork element establishes a trail back to the subscriber 1305 for thedata packet 1345 to follow.

Matching the named data in an ICN may follow several strategies.Generally, the data is named hierarchically, such as with a universalresource identifier (URI). For example, a video may be namedwww.somedomain.com or videos or v8675309. Here, the hierarchy may beseen as the publisher, “www.somedomain.com,” a sub-category, “videos,”and the canonical identification “v8675309.” As an interest 1330traverses the ICN, ICN network elements will generally attempt to matchthe name to a greatest degree. Thus, if an ICN element has a cached itemor route for both “www.somedomain.com or videos” and “www.somedomain.comor videos or v8675309,” the ICN element will match the later for aninterest packet 1330 specifying “www.somedomain.com or videos orv8675309.” In an example, an expression may be used in matching by theICN device. For example, the interest packet may specify“www.somedomain.com or videos or v8675*” where ‘*’ is a wildcard. Thus,any cached item or route that includes the data other than the wildcardwill be matched.

Item matching involves matching the interest 1330 to data cached in theICN element. Thus, for example, if the data 1345 named in the interest1330 is cached in network element 1315, then the network element 1315will return the data 1345 to the subscriber 1305 via the network element1310. However, if the data 1345 is not cached at network element 1315,the network element 1315 routes the interest 1330 on (e.g., to networkelement 1320). To facilitate routing, the network elements may use aforwarding information base 1325 (FIB) to match named data to aninterface (e.g., physical port) for the route. Thus, the FIB 1325operates much like a routing table on a traditional network device.

In an example, additional meta-data may be attached to the interestpacket 1330, the cached data, or the route (e.g., in the FIB 1325), toprovide an additional level of matching. For example, the data name maybe specified as “www.somedomain.com or videos or v8675309,” but alsoinclude a version number—or timestamp, time range, endorsement, etc. Inthis example, the interest packet 1330 may specify the desired name, theversion number, or the version range. The matching may then locateroutes or cached data matching the name and perform the additionalcomparison of meta-data or the like to arrive at an ultimate decision asto whether data or a route matches the interest packet 1330 forrespectively responding to the interest packet 1330 with the data packet1345 or forwarding the interest packet 1330.

ICN has advantages over host-based networking because the data segmentsare individually named. This enables aggressive caching throughout thenetwork as a network element may provide a data packet 1330 in responseto an interest 1330 as easily as an original author 1340. Accordingly,it is less likely that the same segment of the network will transmitduplicates of the same data requested by different devices.

Fine grained encryption is another feature of many ICN networks. Atypical data packet 1345 includes a name for the data that matches thename in the interest packet 1330. Further, the data packet 1345 includesthe requested data and may include additional information to filtersimilarly named data (e.g., by creation time, expiration time, version,etc.). To address malicious entities providing false information underthe same name, the data packet 1345 may also encrypt its contents with apublisher key or provide a cryptographic hash of the data and the name.Thus, knowing the key (e.g., from a certificate of an expected publisher1340) enables the recipient to ascertain whether the data is from thatpublisher 1340. This technique also facilitates the aggressive cachingof the data packets 1345 throughout the network because each data packet1345 is self-contained and secure. In contrast, many host-based networksrely on encrypting a connection between two hosts to securecommunications. This may increase latencies while connections are beingestablished and prevents data caching by hiding the data from thenetwork elements.

Example ICN networks include content centric networking (CCN), asspecified in the Internet Engineering Task Force (II TF) draftspecifications for CCNx 0.x and CCN 1.x, and named data networking(NDN), as specified in the NDN technical report DND-0001.

FIG. 14 illustrates a flow diagram of an example of a method 1400 fordecentralized key generation and management, according to an embodiment.The operations of the method 1400 are implement in computationalhardware such as that described above or below (e.g., processingcircuitry).

At operation 1405 a first ICN interest packet for public encryptionparameters (e.g., public parameters) of an identity based encryption(IBE) key generation center (KGC) is received at an information centricnetwork (ICN) node. Here, the KGC is implemented as a function on annamed function network (NFN) node.

At operation 1410, a local pending interest table (PIT) is updated withthe ICN interest packet. This enables a data packet sent in response tobe sent back out the interface upon which the interest was received.

At operation 1415, the first ICN interest packet is transmitted (e.g.,on an outbound interface of the ICN node) based on an entry in a localforwarding information base (FIB).

At operation 1420, a first ICN data packet in response to the first ICNinterest packet is received. Here, the first ICN data packet includesthe public encryption parameters for the KGC.

At operation 1425, the public encryption parameters are cached. Thiscaching is locally to the ICN node, generally involving storing thepublic parameters in a local content data store indexed to the name usedin the first interest packet to request the parameters.

At operation 1430, the first ICN data packet is transmitted inaccordance with the PIT entry for the first ICN interest packet. Thisenables the requestor to receive the public parameters requested by thefirst interest packet.

At operation 1435, a second ICN interest packet for the publicencryption parameters is received.

At operation 1440, a response to the second ICN interest packet is madewith a second ICN data packet that includes the public encryptionparameters stored in cache. Here, the KGC public parameters were cachedand thus served to the second requestor without contacting the KGCagain.

At operation 1445, a third ICN data packet from the KGC is received inresponse to a key generation request here, the third data packetincludes an indication that the third ICN data packet is part of aone-time session. This third ICN data packet is part of a key-generationrequest to create a secret key for an identity.

At operation 1450, the third ICN data packet is transmitted inaccordance with the PIT without caching the third ICN data packet basedon the indication that the third ICN data packet is part of the one-timesession. In an example, the third ICN data packet includes a generatedkey for an identity of a requestor to participate in IBE communications.In an example, the generated key is used by the requestor to decryptcommunications sent to the requester that are encrypted with theidentity and the public encryption parameters. In an example,communications in the one-time session between the requestor and the KGCare encrypted in accordance with the public encryption parameters.

In an example, the KGC is one of a group of cloned KGCs (e.g., KGCaaSinstances). Here, each of the cloned KGCs provide the same publicencryption parameters and the same generated key for a given input(e.g., identity and random number r). In an example, members of thegroup of cloned KGCs are distributed to NFN nodes based on nodecapacity. In an example, the node capacity includes cryptographichardware to support encryption or key generation. In an example, thenode capacity includes hardware that can be securely partitioned. Nodecapacity generally refers to the suitability of a node to host a KGC.Thus, a host with idle processing power has greater node capacity thananother node that is similarly equipped without idle processing power.The distribution of KGCs to nodes is then a function of whether a givennode has the hardware and software to support a KGC, and whether thenode has power, processing, storage, etc. resources in excess of othercapable nodes.

FIG. 15 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine 1500 uponwhich any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies) discussedherein may perform. Examples, as described herein, may include, or mayoperate by, logic or a number of components, or mechanisms in themachine 1500. Circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry) is a collection ofcircuits implemented in tangible entities of the machine 1500 thatinclude hardware (e.g., simple circuits, gates, logic, etc.). Circuitrymembership may be flexible over time. Circuitries include members thatmay, alone or in combination, perform specified operations whenoperating. In an example, hardware of the circuitry may be immutablydesigned to carry out a specific operation (e.g., hardwired). In anexample, the hardware of the circuitry may include variably connectedphysical components (e.g., execution units, transistors, simplecircuits, etc.) including a machine readable medium physically modified(e.g., magnetically, electrically, moveable placement of invariantmassed particles, etc.) to encode instructions of the specificoperation. In connecting the physical components, the underlyingelectrical properties of a hardware constituent are changed, forexample, from an insulator to a conductor or vice versa. Theinstructions enable embedded hardware (e.g., the execution units or aloading mechanism) to create members of the circuitry in hardware viathe variable connections to carry out portions of the specific operationwhen in operation. Accordingly, in an example, the machine readablemedium elements are part of the circuitry or are communicatively coupledto the other components of the circuitry when the device is operating.In an example, any of the physical components may be used in more thanone member of more than one circuitry. For example, under operation,execution units may be used in a first circuit of a first circuitry atone point in time and reused by a second circuit in the first circuitry,or by a third circuit in a second circuitry at a different time.Additional examples of these components with respect to the machine 1500follow.

In alternative embodiments, the machine 1500 may operate as a standalonedevice or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In anetworked deployment, the machine 1500 may operate in the capacity of aserver machine, a client machine, or both in server-client networkenvironments. In an example, the machine 1500 may act as a peer machinein peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. Themachine 1500 may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box(STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a webappliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable ofexecuting instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions tobe taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine isillustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include anycollection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (ormultiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as aservice (SaaS), other computer cluster configurations.

The machine (e.g., computer system) 1500 may include a hardwareprocessor 1502 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combinationthereof), a main memory. 1504, a static memory (e.g., memory or storagefor firmware, microcode, a basic-input-output (BIOS), unified extensiblefirmware interface (UEFI), etc.) 1506, and mass storage 1508 (e.g., harddrives, tape drives, flash storage, or other block devices) some or allof which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus)1530. The machine 1500 may further include a display unit 1510, analphanumeric input device 1512 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface(UI) navigation device 1514 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the displayunit 1510, input device 1512 and U navigation device 1514 may be a touchscreen display. The machine 1500 may additionally include a storagedevice (e.g., drive unit) 1508, a signal generation device 1518 (e.g., aspeaker), a network interface device 1520, and one or more sensors 1516,such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, compass,accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 1500 may include an outputcontroller 1528, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB),parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near fieldcommunication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate or control one ormore peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, card reader, etc.).

Registers of the processor 1502, the main memory 1504, the static memory1506, or the mass storage 1508 may be, or include, a machine readablemedium 1522 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures orinstructions 1524 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one ormore of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions1524 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within any ofregisters of the processor 1502, the main memory 1504, the static memory1506, or the mass storage 1508 during execution thereof by the machine1500. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor1502, the main memory 1504, the static memory 1506, or the mass storage1508 may constitute the machine readable media 1522. While the machinereadable medium 1522 is illustrated as a single medium, the term“machine readable medium” may include a single medium or multiple media(e.g., a centralized or distributed database, or associated caches andservers) configured to store the one or more instructions 1524.

The term “machine readable medium” may include any medium that iscapable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution bythe machine 1500 and that cause the machine 1500 to perform any one ormore of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying data structures used by or associated withsuch instructions. Non-limiting machine readable medium examples mayinclude solid-state memories, optical media, magnetic media, and signals(e.g., radio frequency signals, other photon based signals, soundsignals, etc.). In an example, a non-transitory machine readable mediumcomprises a machine readable medium with a plurality of particles havinginvariant (e.g., rest) mass, and thus are compositions of matter.Accordingly, non-transitory machine-readable media are machine readablemedia that do not include transitory propagating signals. Specificexamples of non-transitory machine readable media may include:non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g.,Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), ElectricallyErasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memorydevices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removabledisks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

In an example, information stored or otherwise provided on the machinereadable medium 1522 may be representative of the instructions 1524,such as instructions 1524 themselves or a format from which theinstructions 1524 may be derived. This format from which theinstructions 1:524 may be derived may include source code, encodedinstructions (e.g., in compressed or encrypted form), packagedinstructions (e.g., split into multiple packages), or the like. Theinformation representative of the instructions 1524 in the machinereadable medium 1522 may be processed by processing circuitry into theinstructions to implement any of the operations discussed herein. Forexample, deriving the instructions 1524 from the information (e.g.,processing by the processing circuitry) may include: compiling (e.g.,from source code, object code, etc.), interpreting, loading, organizing(e.g., dynamically or statically linking), encoding, decoding,encrypting, unencrypting, packaging, unpackaging, or otherwisemanipulating the information into the instructions 1524.

In an example, the derivation of the instructions 1524 may includeassembly, compilation, or interpretation of the information (e.g., bythe processing circuitry) to create the instructions 1524 from someintermediate or preprocessed format provided by the machine readablemedium 1522. The information, when provided in multiple parts, may becombined, unpacked, and modified to create the instructions 1524. Forexample, the information may be in multiple compressed source codepackages (or object code, or binary executable code, etc.) on one orseveral remote servers. The source code packages may be encrypted whenin transit over a network and decrypted, uncompressed, assembled (e.g.,linked) if necessary, and compiled or interpreted (e.g., into a library,stand-alone executable etc.) at a local machine, and executed by thelocal machine.

The instructions 1524 may be further transmitted or received over acommunications network 1526 using a transmission medium via the networkinterface device 1520 utilizing any one of a number of transferprotocols (e.g., frame relay, interne protocol (IP), transmissioncontrol protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transferprotocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communication networks may include alocal area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet datanetwork (e.g., the Internet), LoRa/LoRaWAN, or satellite communicationnetworks, mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks such asthose complying with 3G, 4G LTE/LTE-A, or 5G standards), Plain OldTelephone (POTS) networks, and wireless data networks (e.g., Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family ofstandards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16 family of standards known asWiMax®, IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks,among others. In an example, the network interface device 1520 mayinclude one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phonejacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communications network1526. In an example, the network interface device 1520 may include aplurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one ofsingle-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term“transmission medium” shall be taken to include any intangible mediumthat is capable of storing, encoding or carrying instructions forexecution by the machine 1500, and includes digital or analogcommunications signals or other intangible medium to facilitatecommunication of such software. A transmission medium is a machinereadable medium.

Additional Notes Examples

Example 1 is an apparatus for encrypting communications, the apparatuscomprising: machine readable media including instructions; andprocessing circuitry that, when in operation, is configured by theinstructions to: receive, at an information centric network (ICN) node,a first ICN interest packet for public encryption parameters of anidentity based encryption (IBE) key generation center (KGC) implementedas a function on a named function network (NFN) node; update a localpending interest table (PIT) with the ICN interest packet; transmit thefirst ICN interest packet based on an entry in a local forwardinginformation base (FIB); receive a first ICN data packet in response tothe first ICN interest packet, the first ICN data packet including thepublic encryption parameters for the KGC; cache the public encryptionparameters; transmit the first ICN data packet in accordance with thePIT entry for the first ICN interest packet; receive a second ICNinterest packet for the public encryption parameters; respond to thesecond ICN interest packet with a second ICN data packet that includesthe public encryption parameters stored in cache; receive a third ICNdata packet from the KGC in response to a key generation request, thethird data packet including an indication that the third ICN data packetis part of a one-time session; and transmit the third ICN data packet inaccordance with the PIT without caching the third ICN data packet basedon the indication that the third ICN data packet is part of the one-timesession.

In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the third ICNdata packet includes a generated key for an identity of a requestor toparticipate in IBE communications.

In Example 3, the subject matter of Example 2, wherein the KGC is one ofa group of cloned KGCs, each of the cloned KGCs providing the publicencryption parameters and a same generated key for a given input.

In Example 4, the subject matter of Example 3, wherein members of thegroup of cloned KGCs are distributed to NFN nodes based on nodecapacity.

In Example 5, the subject matter of Example 4, wherein the node capacityincludes cryptographic hardware to support encryption or key generation.

In Example 6, the subject matter of any of Examples 4-5, wherein thenode capacity includes hardware that can be securely partitioned.

In Example 7, the subject matter of any of Examples 2-6,whereincommunications in the one-time session between the requestor and the KGCare encrypted in accordance with the public encryption parameters.

In Example 8, the subject matter of any of Examples 2-7, wherein thegenerated key is used by the requestor to decrypt communications sent tothe requestor that are encrypted with the identity and the publicencryption parameters.

Example 9 is a method for encrypting communications, the methodcomprising: receiving, at an information centric network (ICN) node, afirst ICN interest packet for public encryption parameters of anidentity based encryption (IBE) key generation center (KGC) implementedas a function on a named function network (NFN) node; updating a localpending interest table (PIT) with the ICN interest packet; transmittingthe first ICN interest packet based on an entry in a local forwardinginformation base (FIB); receiving a first ICN data packet in response tothe first ICN interest packet, the first ICN data packet including thepublic encryption parameters for the KGC; caching the public encryptionparameters; transmitting the first ICN data packet in accordance withthe PIT entry for the first ICN interest packet; receiving a second ICNinterest packet for the public encryption parameters; responding to thesecond ICN interest packet with a second ICN data packet that includesthe public encryption parameters stored in cache; receiving a third ICNdata packet from the KGC in response to a key generation request, thethird data packet including an indication that the third ICN data packetis part of a one-time session; and transmitting the third ICN datapacket in accordance with the PIT without caching the third ICN datapacket based on the indication that the third ICN data packet is part ofthe one-time session.

In Example 10, the subject matter of Example 9, wherein the third ICNdata packet includes a generated key for an identity of a requestor toparticipate in IBE communications.

In Example 11, the subject matter of Example 10, wherein the KGC is oneof a group of cloned KGCs, each of the cloned KGCs providing the publicencryption parameters and a same generated key for a given input.

In Example 12, the subject matter of Example 11, wherein members of thegroup of cloned KGCs are distributed to NFN nodes based on nodecapacity.

In Example 13, the subject matter of Example 12, wherein the nodecapacity includes cryptographic hardware to support encryption or keygeneration.

In Example 14, the subject matter of any of Examples 12-13, wherein thenode capacity includes hardware that can be securely partitioned.

In Example 15, the subject matter of any of Examples 10-14, whereincommunications in the one-time session between the requestor and the KGCare encrypted in accordance with the public encryption parameters.

In Example 16, the subject matter of any of Examples 10-15, wherein thegenerated key is used by the requestor to decrypt communications sent tothe requestor that are encrypted with the identity and the publicencryption parameters.

Example 17 is at least one machine readable medium includinginstructions for encrypting communications, the instructions, whenexecuted by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry toperform operations comprising: receiving, at an information centricnetwork (ICN) node, a first ICN interest packet for public encryptionparameters of an identity based encryption (IBE) key generation center(KGC) implemented as a function on a named function network (NFN) node;updating a local pending interest table (PIT) with the ICN interestpacket; transmitting the first ICN interest packet based on an entry ina local forwarding information base (FIB); receiving a first ICN datapacket in response to the first ICN interest packet, the first ICN datapacket including the public encryption parameters for the KGC; cachingthe public encryption parameters; transmitting the first ICN data packetin accordance with the PIT entry for the first ICN interest packet;receiving a second ICN interest packet for the public encryptionparameters; responding to to second ICN interest packet with a secondICN data packet that includes the public encryption parameters stored incache; receiving a third ICN data packet from the KGC in response to akey generation request, the third data packet including an indicationthat the third ICN data packet is part of a one-time session; andtransmitting the third ICN data packet in accordance with the PITwithout caching the third ICN data packet based on the indication thatthe third ICN data packet is part of the one-time session.

In Example 18, the subject matter of Example 17, wherein the third ICNdata packet includes a generated key for an identity of a requestor toparticipate in IBE communications.

In Example 19, the subject matter of Example 18, wherein the KGC is oneof a group of cloned KGCs, each of the cloned KGCs providing the publicencryption parameters and a same generated key for a given input.

In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19, wherein members of thegroup of cloned KGCs are distributed to NFN nodes based on nodecapacity.

In Example 21, the subject matter of Example 20, wherein the nodecapacity includes cryptographic hardware to support encryption or keygeneration.

In Example 22, the subject matter of any of Examples 20-21, wherein thenode capacity includes hardware that can be securely partitioned.

In Example 23, the subject matter of any of Examples 18-22, whereincommunications in the one-time session between the requestor and the KGCare encrypted in accordance with the public encryption parameters.

In Example 24, the subject matter of any of Examples 18-23, wherein thegenerated key is used by the requestor to decrypt communications sent tothe requestor that are encrypted with the identity and the publicencryption parameters.

Example 25 is a system for encrypting communications, the systemcomprising: means for receiving, at an information centric network (ICN)node, a first ICN interest packet for public encryption parameters of anidentity based encryption (IBE) key generation center (KGC) implementedas a function on a named function network (NFN) node; means for updatinga local pending interest table (PIT) with the ICN interest packet; meansfor transmitting the first ICN interest packet based on an entry in alocal forwarding information base (FIB); means for receiving a first ICNdata packet in response to the first ICN interest packet, the first ICNdata packet including the public encryption parameters for the KGC;means for caching the public encryption parameters; means fortransmitting the first ICN data packet in accordance with the PIT entryfor the first ICN interest packet; means for receiving a second ICNinterest packet for the public encryption parameters; means forresponding to the second ICN interest packet with a second ICN datapacket that includes the public encryption parameters stored in cache;means for receiving a third ICN data packet from the KGC in response toa key generation request, the third data packet including an indicationthat the third ICN data packet is part of a one-time session; and meansfor transmitting the third :ICN data packet in accordance with the PITwithout caching the third ICN data packet based on the indication thatthe third ICN data packet is part of the one-time session.

In Example 26, the subject matter of Example 25, wherein the third ICNdata packet includes a generated key for an identity of a requestor toparticipate in IBE communications.

In Example 27, the subject matter of Example 26, wherein the KGC is oneof a group of cloned KGCs, each of the cloned KGCs providing the publicencryption parameters and a same generated key for a given input.

In Example 28, the subject matter of Example 27, wherein members of thegroup of cloned KGCs are distributed to NFN nodes based on nodecapacity.

In Example 29, the subject matter of Example 28, wherein the nodecapacity includes cryptographic hardware to support encryption or keygeneration.

In Example 30, the subject matter of any of Examples 28-29, wherein thenode capacity includes hardware that can be securely partitioned.

In Example 31, the subject matter of any of Examples 26-30, whereincommunications in the one-time session between the requestor and the KGCare encrypted in accordance with the public encryption parameters.

In Example 32, the subject matter of any of Examples 26-31, wherein thegenerated key is used by the requestor to decrypt communications sent tothe requestor that are encrypted with the identity and the publicencryption parameters.

Example 33 is at least one machine-readable medium includinginstructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause theprocessing circuitry to perform operations to implement of any ofExamples 1-32.

Example 34 is an apparatus comprising means to implement of any ofExamples 1-32.

Example 35 is a system to implement of any of Examples 1-32.

Example 36 is a method to implement of any of Examples 1-32.

The above detailed description includes references to the accompanyingdrawings, which form a part of the detailed description. The drawingsshow, by way of illustration, specific embodiments that may bepracticed. These embodiments are also referred to herein as “examples.”Such examples may include elements in addition to those shown ordescribed. However, the present inventors also contemplate examples inwhich only those elements shown or described are provided. Moreover, thepresent inventors also contemplate examples using any combination orpermutation of those elements shown or described (or one or more aspectsthereof), either with respect to a particular example (or one or moreaspects thereof), or with respect to other examples (or one or moreaspects thereof) shown or described herein.

All publications, patents, and patent documents referred to in thisdocument are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, asthough individually incorporated by reference. In the event ofinconsistent usages between this document and those documents soincorporated by reference, the usage in the incorporated reference(s)should be considered supplementary to that of this document; forirreconcilable inconsistencies, the usage in this document controls.

In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patentdocuments, to include one or more than one, independent of any otherinstances or usages of “at least one” or “one or more.” In thisdocument, the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that“A or B” includes “A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “A and B,” unlessotherwise indicated. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and“in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respectiveterms “comprising” and “wherein.” Also, in the following claims, theterms “including” and “comprising” are open-ended, that is, a system,device, article, or process that includes elements in addition to thoselisted after such a term in a claim are still deemed to fall within thescope of that claim. Moreover, in the following claims, the terms“first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and arenot intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

The above description is intended to be illustrative, and notrestrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or moreaspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. Otherembodiments may be used, such as by one of ordinary skill in the artupon reviewing the above description. The Abstract is to allow thereader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure andis submitted with the understanding that it will not be used tointerpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Also, in theabove Detailed Description, various features may be grouped together tostreamline the disclosure. This should not be interpreted as intendingthat an unclaimed disclosed feature is essential to any claim. Rather,inventive subject matter may lie in less than all features of aparticular disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing onits own as a separate embodiment. The scope of the embodiments should bedetermined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for encrypting communications, theapparatus comprising: machine readable media including instructions; andprocessing circuitry that, when in operation, is configured by theinstructions to: receive, at an information centric network (ICN) node,a first ICN interest packet for public encryption parameters of anidentity based encryption (IBE) key generation center (KGC) implementedas a function on a named function network (NEN) node; update a localpending interest table (PIT) with the ICN interest packet; transmit thefirst ICN interest packet based on an entry in a local forwardinginformation base (FIB); receive a first ICN data packet in response tothe first ICN interest packet, the first ICN data packet including thepublic encryption parameters for the KGC; cache the public encryptionparameters; transmit the first ICN data packet in accordance with thePIT entry for the first ICN interest packet; receive a second ICNinterest packet for the public encryption parameters; respond to thesecond ICN interest packet with a second ICN data packet that includesthe public encryption parameters stored in cache; receive a third ICNdata packet from the KGC in response to a key generation request, thethird data packet including an indication that the third ICN data packetis part of a one-time session; and transmit the third ICN data packet inaccordance with the PIT without caching the third ICN data packet basedon the indication that the third ICN data packet is part of the one-timesession.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the third ICN data packetincludes a generated key for an identity of a requestor to participatein IBE communications.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the KGC isone of a group of cloned KGCs, each of the cloned KGCs providing thepublic encryption parameters and a same generated key for a given input.4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein members of the group of cloned KGCsare distributed to NFN nodes based on node capacity.
 5. The apparatus ofclaim 4, wherein the node capacity includes cryptographic hardware tosupport encryption or key generation.
 6. The apparatus of claim 4,wherein the node capacity includes hardware that can be securelypartitioned.
 7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein communications in theone-time session between the requestor and the KGC are encrypted inaccordance with the public encryption parameters.
 8. The apparatus ofclaim 2, wherein the generated key is used by the requestor to decryptcommunications sent to the requestor that are encrypted with theidentity and the public encryption parameters.
 9. A method forencrypting communications, the method comprising: receiving, at aninformation centric network (ICN) node, a first ICN interest packet forpublic encryption parameters of an identity based encryption (IBE) keygeneration center (KGC); receiving public encryption parameters for theKGC in a first ICN data packet in response to the first ICN interestpacket; caching the public encryption parameters; responding to a secondICN interest packet for the public parameters with a second ICN datapacket that includes the public encryption parameters stored in cache;receiving a third ICN data packet from the KGC in response to a keygeneration request, the third data packet including an indication thatthe third ICN data packet is part of a one-time session; andtransmitting the third ICN data packet without caching the third ICNdata packet based on the indication.
 10. The method of claim 9, whereinthe third ICN data packet includes a generated key for an identity of arequestor to participate in IBE communications.
 11. The method of claim10, wherein the KGC is one of a group of cloned KGCs, each of the clonedKGCs providing the public encryption parameters and a same generated keyfor a given input.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein members of thegroup of cloned KGCs are distributed to NFN nodes based on nodecapacity.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the node capacity includescryptographic hardware to support encryption or key generation.
 14. Themethod of claim 12, wherein he node capacity includes hardware that canbe securely partitioned.
 15. The method of claim 10, whereincommunications in the one-time session between the requestor and the KGCare encrypted in accordance with the public encryption parameters. 16.The method of claim 10, wherein the generated key is used by therequestor to decrypt communications sent to the requestor that areencrypted with the identity and the public encryption parameters.
 17. Atleast one non-transitory machine readable medium including instructionsfor encrypting communications, the instructions, when executed byprocessing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to performoperations comprising: receiving, at an information centric network(ICN) node, a first interest packet for public encryption parameters ofan identity based encryption (IBE) key generation center (KGC)implemented as a function on a named function network (NFN) node;updating a local pending interest table (PIT) with the ICN interestpacket; transmitting the first ICN interest packet based on an entry ina local forwarding information base (FIB); receiving a first ICN datapacket in response to the first ICN interest packet, the first ICN datapacket including the public encryption parameters for the KGC; cachingthe public encryption parameters; transmitting the first ICN data packetin accordance with the PIT entry for the first interest packet;receiving a second ICN interest packet for the public encryptionparameters; responding to the second ICN interest packet with a secondICN data packet that includes the public encryption parameters stored incache; receiving a third ICN data packet from the KGC in response to akey generation request, the third data packet including an indicationthat the third ICN data packet is part of a one-time session; andtransmitting the third ICN data packet in accordance with the PITwithout caching the third ICN data packet based on the indication thatthe third ICN data packet is part of the one-time session.
 18. The atleast one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17, whereinthe third ICN data packet includes a generated key for an identity of arequestor to participate in IBE communications.
 19. The at least onenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the KGC isone of a group of cloned KGCs, each of the cloned KGCs providing thepublic encryption parameters and a same generated key for a given input.20. The at least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 19,wherein members of the group of cloned KGCs are distributed to NFN nodesbased on node capacity.
 21. The at least one non-transitory machinereadable medium of claim 20, wherein the node capacity includescryptographic hardware to support encryption or key generation.
 22. Theat least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 20, whereinthe node capacity includes hardware that can be securely partitioned.23. The at least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18,wherein communications in the one-time session between the requestor andthe KGC are encrypted in accordance with the public encryptionparameters.
 24. The at least one non-transitory machine readable mediumof claim 18, wherein the generated key is used by the requestor todecrypt communications sent to the requestor that are encrypted with theidentity and the public encryption parameters.